Abstract

Halites are one of the interesting material due to its color variations. Natural halites whose color ranges from transparent to dark blue were studied by UV-VIS and Raman spectroscopy. The halite crystals were irradiated with 3 MeV proton micro-beam (similar to 20 mu m beam width with similar to 80 PA beam current) for 10 and 90 min to study the radiation damage. After 10 mins of irradiation, small spot developed on the surface of transparent halite crystal whereas after 90 mins of irradiation the spot spread inside the bulk leading to a brown coloration (20 mu m initial size to similar to 2.0 mm final size). The irradiated portion and the un-irradiated portion of the halites was characterized by Raman spectroscopic technique. The variation in the population density was observed from the UV-Vis spectra. The change in the Raman band intensities was observed for transparent, blue colored and proton beam irradiation halites. Such variation of spectroscopic characteristics due to proton irradiation suggests that the halite can be used for the radiation monitoring. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.